


Shades

by StarkidDreamer



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Darcy is a badass, Female Friendship, Gen, I needed to write this, I will be adding characters and tags as I go, Multi, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Secret Past, WIP, Women helping Women, and lots of swears, hence the rating, seriously, this is gonna get really violent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-12-04
Packaged: 2018-03-18 20:26:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3582789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarkidDreamer/pseuds/StarkidDreamer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy is many things. She’s an intern and a college grad. A sarcastic shit and a music lover. She’s the type of girl that cannot leave a dog to die in a pet store in Puente Antiguo with fire raining from the sky and she carries her taser everywhere. Most of all, Darcy is the type of person who couldn't shoot the dog.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so it got stuck in my head and I had to write it. I just had to. This is currently unbeta'd by the way.

Darcy leaned forward, hand clenching at Jane’s knee as she watched in horror as the helicarriers hit the Potomac. The moment _Captain fricken America_ went on the most wanted list Thor was off, headed towards Washington DC the old fashioned way, via airplane. It had been a concession he made simply because Jane didn’t want people to know he was going. Donald Blake was booked and on a plane from Heathrow to Ronald Regan International before the end of the night leaving Jane and Darcy behind with two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to watch their backs while Thor was gone. Darcy thought it was excessive but, as it turned out, maybe not so much.

Darcy got up numbly, moving into the tiny kitchen to make all five of them, Ian included, some coffee. They were going to need it to get through the night. Darcy came back fifteen minutes later, hands practically juggling five cups of coffee, when she heard it. It was a strange high pitch static-y sort of noise that seemed to be coming from Agent One’s phone. She’d taken to calling them Agent One and Agent Two since they looked so damn similar and she couldn’t stop herself from likening them to thing one and thing two. She felt more then saw Ian moving towards her murmuring ‘Coffee Coffee Coffee’ appreciatively even as she spoke. “I brought coffee Secret Agent Men.” Darcy announced as she walked towards Agent One whose eyes hadn't left his phone. “I can probably fix that for you if you-”

She watched as he lifted his glock, firing twice in her direction. She heard the sick sound of a body hitting the floor and only barely connected that sound to Ian’s presence no longer being behind her before she felt the hot punch slam into her shoulder like a lance. Then it was almost like her body knew what to do even though she did not. Her hand shot forward, coffee cups shattering against the ground with a spray of burning liquid, snapping the slide on his Glock back at the same time as she slammed the meaty part of her palm down onto the magazine release. She yanked the now useless gun towards her, dragging the surprised Agent with it, then snapped her hand, and the Glock, forward so hard his elbows buckled and the butt of the gun hammered into his nose, causing a warm spray to cover her face.

Darcy brought her knee up, slamming into the side of Agent One’s knee which causing them to wobbly but didn’t buckle like the move had intended. His fist jerked forward but Darcy wasn’t having any of that. She brought her hand up, fisted and parallel to her face, deflecting the hit. She surged up, right in his space, and headbutted him hard in his already broken nose. His body hitting the floor had a ring of finality to it that made her stomach churn. Darcy stumbled back, looking at her shaking hands in shock. “What was that, Darce?” she heard Jane’s voice almost like it was filtering through Jell-O but couldn’t bring herself to acknowledge it because the second Agent was moving towards them.

Agent Two had his hands up and to the side, the movie version of ‘I’m not gonna hurt you’ but Darcy wasn’t buying since Agent One had literally just fired his gun at her and- “Ian!” Darcy wailed, turning and dropping to her knee’s beside Ian at the same time. She vaguely noted that the Agent had released the mag on his gun as he moved towards Darcy and Ian.

“Miss. Lewis. Let me have a look.” he said slowly, reaching for Ian. Darcy practically growled at him but he kept moving, slowly and calmly. She allowed it for now, the Agents pointer and middle finger pressing into Ian’s throat gently. “I’m sorry, Miss. Lewis but… he was probably dead before he hit the ground.” he said it slowly, as if she were glass that would shatter. Or maybe a bomb waiting to go off. She wasn’t sure how accurate that actually was. “I need to contact S.H.I.E.L.D. and tell them what just happened. I’m going to be in the kitchen. Don’t go anywhere.” Darcy nodded, glancing up at Jane.

Jane was already making her way to Ian with the sheet they kept on the couch for Darcy. She slept on the couch so much they just left it there for her. She pulled the sheet over Ian’s body, the center of the white fabric instantly seeping through with red. Darcy looked away. Looked toward the phone that was still making that god awful static-y sound.

Darcy hadn’t even realized she’d moved to grab it by the time she was halfway through stripping it and plugging it into her computer. “Its a signal.” she muttered, feeling Jane come up behind her. Jane knew Darcy was good with electronics. She was the one who’d faked Thor’s credentials after all, his ID back in Puente Antiguo and his passport only yesterday to get him to DC. The computer part was easy, it was the forging she’d had to get help from S.H.I.E.L.D. for. They didn’t necessarily approve of her methods but what was done was done at that point. “Its a simple message repeated. Semantic Coding. I just have to find the mnemonic key… just give me a-” she frowned as the screen started to work out the message. It came up the moment the Agent returned from the kitchen looking pale white.

“OUT OF THE SHADOWS INTO THE LIGHT. HYDRA.”

“What does that mean?” Jane asked, fingers squeezing Darcy’s shoulders tightly. Darcy had gone ice cold, having studied HYDRA extensively for years while getting her masters in Political Science.

“HYDRA’s been growing in S.H.I.E.L.D. for years.” Agent said suddenly, stepping up beside them. Darcy reminded herself that she really needed to learn his name, considering. “That is an activation code for HYDRA members _inside_  S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“I told you S.H.I.E.L.D. was evil.” Darcy snorted as she stood up. The agent leveled a gun at her chest then. Darcy froze.

“How did you know how to disable my partner?” the Agent asked, eyes narrowing.

“I have no idea.” she said sharply, just as a burst of bullets riddled the wall. The Agent was pushing both Darcy and Jane down in an instant, moving them towards the kitchen. The back exit. “They’re trying to kill us!” Darcy wailed as they made it out the back. “What are we _doing_?” she yelled, voice already moving toward that ‘so high only dogs can hear’ pitch of panic. She had Jane pressed to her front, curling slightly around her best friend as they moved through the back yard. There was no way Darcy was letting Jane get hurt.

“I don’t know what’s happening but we’re getting out of here and going dark.” the Agent insisted, shoving the two of them into the back of his waiting car. And wow, a black SUV. Because that’s not obvious or anything. They peeled out fast and Darcy didn’t even bother looking back, still pressing Jane down into the seat like it was her job. It wasn’t but Jane was important. Jane meant something. She couldn’t let her get hurt.

“Get off!” Jane finally struggled her way out of Darcy’s hold as they were thrown around the back of the SUV, car peeling around a rough corner.

“Jane! You have blood on your shirt! Are you okay?” Darcy snapped, hands coming up to check on her boss. Jane looked down, brows furrowing.

“Darcy, this isn’t mine.” Jane reached forward, peeling back Darcy’s black knit sweater to reveal blood. “You were shot? _He shot you_!” Darcy hadn’t even noticed aside from the sharp slice of pain when she’d been hit. She honestly thought she’d been punched, though Agent One had been way too far away for that at the time. Darcy had compartmentalized the pain, ignoring it.

“Oh.” she blinked in shock for a moment but the car jerked again as a spray of bullets hit the resistant glass of the back window. The scream ripped out of Darcy, hands coming up to pull Jane’s head down while ducking her own. “Well, he’s dead now isn’t he?” she snapped, because yeah. Darcy had killed him. She’d killed a guy. She compartmentalized that too. Now was not the time to question why that wasn’t sitting more wrong with her. Why her stomach hadn’t expelled its contents right then and there. Why she was still standing as opposed to dead, bullet lodged in her brain just like Ian. Darcy was terrified.

Darcy’s hand came up, clutching at the medallion that had been hanging around her neck for years. It was now or never as far as she could tell. The car was dodging through traffic as their pursuers continued to try to straight up murder their asses. Now was the time. “Give me your phone!” Darcy shouted at Jane, knowing the woman had it with her. It had been in her pocket when it all started. Darcy would moan about her phone still being on the table back at Jane’s place later.

“What?!” Jane looked at Darcy like maybe she’d been hit a little too hard earlier.

“ _Phone_!” she snapped again. Jane rolled her eyes, thrusting the thing at Darcy. Darcy yanked the chain from her neck, turning the medallion over and dialing the number on the back. The phone rang a few times before a calm voice answered. “Hey! My name is Darcy and I have this thing. I don’t know if this is the kind of favor you guys do but-” there was a burst of gunfire that nearly caused Darcy to drop the phone but she managed to keep it  held tight in her grasp. "We are literally being _shot at_ so if ever I needed a favor _now would be the time_!"

“I’m sorry, we can’t help you-”

“Shit, wait! Password! I have the password!” she insisted. When she didn’t immediately hear the sound of the phone disconnecting she smiled, chest heaving. “Gin, not Vodka!”

“Your complaint has been-” the back glass of the window shattered then, bullets slamming through the seats and ripping into Agent Two whose name she really felt bad for not learning now. Darcy screamed as the car started to careen out of control. She slipped into the front seat as fast as possible, managing to get control of the car. She didn’t even hear the last of the woman’s words on the phone, focusing on pushing an injured but still breathing Agent Two out of the drivers seat.

“Stay down!” Darcy shrieked, throat sore from the sheer amount of yelling she’d had to do today, and glanced back. “I’ll get us out of here!” Darcy shifted into third expertly and jerked to the left. She wasn’t quite sure if she was going to survive this, but Jane sure as hell would.

Darcy didn’t drive very often but she could. Darcy could drive very well if she was being honest with herself but sometimes it made her nervous. She’d be driving and find herself taking turns she didn’t need to and she’d weave her way through traffic like it was her job. Agent Coulson, rest his soul, had called it ‘excellent counter surveillance technique’ but Darcy had just shrugged it off at the time. She was starting to wonder now though. She’d started wondering about herself and what she didn’t know the moment she’d disabled that gun.

Darcy switched gears, dropping out of her dead speed into a reverse that sent the car careening to its left, spinning them so they were headed in the opposite direction. Darcy could see Jane’s eyes wide in the back seat, hands clutching for the seat as Darcy brought them down another side street that, by all means, should not have accommodated their car. A few minutes passed and she thought they were all in the clear. She wasn’t going to relax her speed though. That was when the semi slammed into the side of their SUV doing ninety. Everything went white before fading black.


	2. Chapter 2

Darcy remembered being told not to press the button down to turn off the computer at a pretty young age. She learned later that force restarting a computer could damage it pretty badly. It was pretty much common knowledge now. Of course when she was younger that didn't really stop her from mashing her finger down on that power button every night before bed. So when Darcy felt the ice cold water hit her face, actual ice chips floating in the bucket along with the water, she knew exactly what a force restart felt like and she kind of wanted to apologize to her old computer.

The gasp that escaped Darcy was half choked off as she desperately tried to get the panic under control and not accidentally aspirate the water that was still being thrown at her. "Two buckets? _Really_? Did you think one wouldn't do it?" She ground out, realizing that she really shouldn't have said that about two seconds after it left her mouth. She didn't even get a chance to look around and take stock of her surroundings, or injuries for that matter, before angry hands were gripping her by her hair and yanking her head back.

"You need to watch your tongue, Miss. Lewis." A voice, feminine and very chilling, hissed into her ear. She clearly wasn't in a hospital. So much for that medallion. So much for that favor. Darcy snorted aloud at that, causing the woman's hand to tighten its grip in her hair. "Something funny?"

"Yeah." Darcy retorted, knowing full well that she needed to _shut the hell up_. "You probably think I know all sorts of interesting information about space bridges and you're in for a huge shock. I find that _real_ funny."

"Actually," the woman began, releasing Darcy's hair and giving her a chance to actually look around. The cell was pretty standard movie villain cliche, which was pretty disappointing if she was being honest. It looked like some kind of basement, though it was too dark to get a real look around. There was a mildewy smell that made Darcy's nose wrinkle and she could hear something dripping from who even knows where. It was unsettling "I know _exactly_ what you are, Miss. Lewis. Expendable. But... you happened to kill my friend so I am going to tell my boss that I think you might have information that could be useful to us. And its my job to extract that information. One tooth at a time. You understand."

Darcy most certainly did _not_ understand.

"What? No witty response to that one, Miss. Lewis?" Darcy was really starting to hate the sound of her own name on someone else’s lips. The woman dragged her hand down Darcy’s neck, brushing at her clothing until the jacket she still had draped over her shoulder slipped down. The woman pressed her thumb against the wound in her shoulder then, digging it in roughly, dragging a strangled cry out of Darcy’s already aching lungs. “Ah, and there is is. Exquisite.”

“You’re _insane_!” Darcy snapped, voice ragged but determination keeping her from wavering into submission. Darcy was not going to give up here. The sharp crack of an open palm to her face caused pain to burst across her face but Darcy refused to even whimper this time. “Where is Jane?” Darcy ground out, teeth clicking together from the effort.

“Doctor Foster? Now she’s useful. She’s _fine_. Agent Smith, your SHIELD guard… he’s not doing so well.”

“Did you kill Agent Two?” Darcy asked, eyes going round. She, at least, knew his name this time. The woman narrowed her eyes at that, stepping into Darcy’s space.

“You didn’t even know his name? You killed my friend and you didn’t know his name? Did you call him Agent One? Did he mean nothing to you?” her voice had that overly calm tone to it that mothers, in Darcy’s experience, adopted whenever they were too mad to actually yell. It meant that Darcy had better know Agent One’s name or she was in some deep shit. She wracked her brain for the name, knowing it was in her head somewhere, rattling around with all the useless trivia facts and Star Trek references she’d thought were so important a few days ago.

“Agent… Callahan!” she cheered inwardly when she realized she knew his name, conveniently ignoring the part of herself that was desperately trying to acknowledge that she’d killed the man. She’d ended his life. Compartmentalize, she reminded herself, even as she felt tears burning down her cheeks. “His name was Agent Callahan and he tried to kill me so no, I’d rather not think about his name or a family or whatever. He killed my boyfriend!”

The woman shouted, perhaps in anger since Darcy couldn’t quite make any words out, and grabbed the side of the chair that Darcy was tied to. She tossed it to the side with an easy strength that shocked Darcy despite being on the receiving end of it. The shove sent the chair tottering dangerously to the side and, in her shock, Darcy was unable to lean appropriately to the side to compensate. The chair, Darcy still in it, toppled to the side, her head cracking against the damp floor. The blow sent Darcy into blissful darkness.

* * *

When Darcy awoke this time she was alone, thankfully. It gave her a chance to actually take stock of her injuries. She felt a sort of numbness about her limbs, keeping her from being able to get an accurate account of what had happened during the car accident but her newer injuries were a little more obvious. Her shoulder was dislocated, no question about it. The pain was radiating through her entire back, culminating at her shoulder, which she was still lying on. The woman hadn’t bothered hauling her up from the position she’d landed in earlier. That must have been how she’d dislocated her shoulder.

She didn’t think anything was broken, though her fingers were tingling from being bound so she couldn’t be one hundred percent sure. What unsettled Darcy the most about her injuries is that she was calm while cataloguing them. Entirely too calm, actually. All of this was scaring her, leaving her with a cold pit in the center of her stomach. Darcy tried to lift her head and found it stuck. As she lifted she could hear the obvious sticky separation of hair from ground, realizing belatedly that it was blood. She must have busted her head open when she’d fallen. Fantastic. She felt a little nauseous but she couldn’t remain on her side. Not with the pain in her shoulder.

Darcy jerked to the side, the scrape of the chair grating at her nerves and sending her eyes flicking up in the direction she assumed the door was in. She didn’t hear anything and tried again, jerking bodily to the left. The chair clattered angrily but tipped onto its back. Darcy was still tied to the thing and still on the ground but at least the pressure on her shoulder had lessened somewhat and she hadn’t alerted anyone to her being awake. Now she needed to think.

Darcy was still dutifully ignoring the situation, the fact that she’d moved in ways that felt familiar but couldn’t remember learning. Her body certainly had though, and it worried her. She knew, from her time in college, that HYDRA had favored brainwashing at one point. She wondered if maybe that’s what had happened to her. If maybe she’d been brainwashed. She’d spent a year travelling after getting her degree and before starting her masters. Pieces of that trip were still missing in Darcy’s mind. She’d always attributed that to drunken shenanigans but… no. She hadn’t even _known_ Jane then. She wasn’t important enough to have been targeted back then.

Back then Darcy had been a bit of a mess. Her brother had just died and she didn’t really have anyone else, aside from some family in England and an Uncle that was super reclusive somewhere in France.The only thing she had left of her brother was the talisman, a hell of a memento but it wasn’t enough. It would _never_ be enough. So much for that favor she’d been promised when she got the damn thing. She’d gone on the trip to clear her head and ended up coming back with more questions than answers and big blank spots in her memory. She’d sworn off German beer and Russian Vodka then went back to school for her masters. She met Jane a year later, six credits short of a masters degree, and that’s when everything went to hell. None of this, she glanced around her surroundings the best she could to look for a weapon or some way out, made any sense.

Darcy tightened her hand into a fist, testing her fingers as she thought of something, anything really, that she could do to get out of here. It was only then that she noticed how weak the back of the chair had gotten. She wasn’t even sure it was still attached to the base. It made sense, having been thrown to the side then jerked around, that the chairs integrity had been compromised. Darcy was just starting to form a plan of escape when the door banged open, causing her to yelp in surprise.

The woman, blonde and beautiful in a way that made Darcy want to hide behind her big sweaters and shapeless jeans, looked upset, and Darcy was pretty sure that didn’t bode well for her. “All right, Miss. Lewis. I’m going to need you to answer a few questions for me now.” Darcy narrowed her eyes when the woman didn’t immediately pull her into an upright position. Apparently she preferred to look down at her prey. Real comforting.

“Turns out Doctor Foster has better friends than you do. The facility she was being held in has been… razed. She’d no longer with us which means you are all we have. So the information in your empty little head is important now. You’re going to have to think _real hard_ and maybe this will go easy for you. The data your boss got from the convergence. I need it.” Darcy swallowed hard, knowing she had the information but didn’t know what any of it meant. Darcy had always been good with memorization. She wouldn’t go so far as to say she had an eidetic memory but she was no slouch either.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about. Sorry.” Darcy attempted to shrug from her position on the floor but the pain that splintered through her was white hot and nauseating. She reminded herself of the dislocated shoulder and made note not to freakin shrug again. The woman’s foot collided with Darcy’s face almost too fast to be plausible by anyone’s standards. It honestly wasn’t fair. Darcy honestly wasn’t sure if she screamed or not, the ringing in her ears was so loud she couldn’t focus on anything else.

“I’ll try again.” the woman gave a curt nod, nudging Darcy’s face with her boot. “Where would they take her? _Where is Jane Foster_?”

“Well, she’s probably in Asgard. I mean, Thor is kind of protective so-” lying was good. Lying was saying something without saying anything at all. The woman’s smile was warm, comforting, terrifying. The next blow to her face was disorienting. She already had a head wound, at this point the woman was just aiming for brain damage.

“Do not lie to me.” she punctuated each word with a severe kick to the ribs.

“You know-” Darcy slurred, “If you keep going for th’ head then you’re never gonna get any info. Makes me all wobbly. Don’t you know how to interrogate someone?”  Really, her mouth was going to get her killed one day. Almost to prove the point she was thrown back by several hard kicks to her abdomen and ribs. She heard a faint crack and prayed to all the gods out there that it was the chair and not her arm or ribs. She felt like she was floating, couldn’t really feel the pain any more. A small beep caught Darcy’s attention, her head turning to get a look at the woman.

The woman had grabbed a phone from somewhere on her person, surprising since the outfit she wore looked like one of those tac suits she’d seen Black Widow in on the news when the Avengers fought for New York two years ago, and was checking it with narrowed forest green eyes. Blonde with green eyes. Rude. Someone that… bad just shouldn’t have the right to be called ‘conventionally pretty’ ever. “I’ll be back, then you’re going to answer some questions.” her boots really should have made some noise as she exited so Darcy could at least count the steps to the door but she was infuriatingly light footed, leaving Darcy in the dark again.

Darcy was a little surprised when the door burst open only a few minutes later. Darcy had spent her time counting after the blonde had left, trying to keep track of how long it was between visits. She was at minute seven and a forty two seconds when the woman practically shrieked at her. “You inconsequential little badger!” Darcy had to wonder in what universe badger was an insult but she didn’t say anything as the woman gripped her and hauled her violently into an upright position. Darcy could feel the back of her chair give a little more at that, knowing for sure that it was no longer attached, and tried not to smile at the thought of it. The basement was too dark to really see the blonde woman but she could practically feel the rage boiling off the woman. Darcy wasn’t even sure what she’d done this time but she wasn’t going to ask either. It seemed her sense of self preservation had finally kicked in, paralyzing her vocal cords.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance!” she shouted. Something dark crossed her expression causing her to pull a knife on Darcy. “Actually, I do have a chance.” she leaned in, bringing the knife to Darcy’s cheek. “I can’t make it last like I wanted but you will die by my hand.”

“You know… what I did to your _friend_?” Darcy asked, the strain in her voice becoming more and more obvious. She was so tired. She didn’t wait for the woman to respond, head snapping forward and headbutting the woman hard. She leaned back, hard and fast, hearing the snap of the already broken chair, and slipped her hands backwards until the rope that bound her to the chair slipped over the jagged end of the broken arm rests. Darcy reached down, twisted fingers attempting to untie her ankles while the woman scrambled to her feet. Darcy only managed to get one foot free before the woman tackled her, arms wrapping around Darcy’s waist and pushing her back, slamming her into the wall. This time the cracking noise obviously wasn’t the chair.

Darcy tied to knee the woman in the stomach but she was faster. That instinct kicked in again, like a switch inside her, and Darcy was moving without telling her body to again. She twisted her body, smashing her elbow down on the woman’s eye, only just now realizing how much shorter than her the woman was. She was probably only five foot even by Darcy’s calculation. No wonder she’d liked it when Darcy was on the ground. She did seem a little surprised by Darcy’s response though. Darcy was supposed to be the weak sarcastic sidekick at best, after all.

Darcy saw rather than felt the woman’s knife slide into her own side, her body jerking violently. She’d never been stabbed before but she assumed she should be able to feel it at least a little. She didn’t. Something was seriously wrong with her. She should have realized it when the petite blonde’s kicks hadn’t hurt or when she hadn’t immediately felt the shoulder or the broken ribs she knew she was sporting right now. She was probably in severe shock or worse. Darcy heard the unmistakable, though she didn’t know why it was a sound she recognized, noise of a gun with a silencer going off before the blonde slumped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Her eyes flicked up and confusion curled in her gut.

The man, now lowering the gun, was wearing what could only be described as a bespoke suit. He adjusted a pair of non-prescription glasses as he moved towards her. “Terribly sorry I’m late, Miss. Lewis-” Darcy flinched at the respectful use of her name and his brow creased. “Darcy.” he corrected. “But we need to go.”

“I don’t know what kind of work you did with my brother, Gareth, but I think we need to have a _long_ conversation when I’m not bleeding out.” Darcy hissed and took the gentleman’s outstretched hand, escape so close she could taste it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've kind of sort of had this typed up for like... six months but stuff got in the way. Sorry.

Gareth was lounging at work, one of those days where he had to actually work in the tailor shop to uphold his cover, when he heard the receptionist pick up the phone. He glanced over at the woman, a wonderful agent who’d been with them for a few years now, and smirked as she instantly tried to manhandle the person off the phone in the most polite way possible. A few times a week they’d get incorrect callers. It was extremely rare to ever get a call from someone who actually had been given the number for that purpose. Each medal had its own number that all routed back to the same phone. From there they tracked the callers location. It was just an extra layer of protection for the Kingsman. Gareth watched, amusement slowly turning to concern when the receptionist reached down to hit the record button before placing the line on hold and shooting to her feet.

The receptionist got to her feet, heading back to the meeting room for a moment and Gareth’s interests were officially piqued. Someone had clearly used a code or was deemed in too much danger to ignore. He wasn’t sure which one of those was more rare. When the receptionist, Miss Lang, returned she gestured to him. “You need to come back with me now, Gareth.” it was clearly mission related if she was using his code name instead of his real name while still near the front of the shop. He stood, straightening his lapels, then headed back with her. “Glasses.” she informed him, handing him a pair.

Arthur wasn’t actually in the Kingsman today but Gareth could easily communicate with him via glasses. “As you are no doubt aware, someone has used their code word. They used yours.” he informed and Gareth went a little cold. He’d only given a medal of valor to one person, a small girl with eyes as blue as the sky and tears pouring down her face. Darcy Lewis, Bennet’s sister. The recruit he’d gotten killed.

“Darcy.” he said it with the surest tone anyone could manage as he brushed down his purple pants. His pants were a vibrant purple, accented by his brown jacket and purple tie. To be a Kingsman one had to know how to… accessorize.

“Precisely.” Arthur agreed, white hologram in the glasses nodding firmly. “We think you need to hear this. Play recording.” the recording of the call started mid call, the moment Darcy had used his call sign.

“ _Your complaint has been-_ ” the burst of gunfire caught Gareth completely off guard, the phone clattering around as it probably jarred loose from her hand. The tires shrieked on the line followed by a heavy thump and a scream, loud and shocked. Darcy. And she sounded terrified. He wondered idly if muscle memory would kick in, if she’d be able to do anything to help herself. There was a shuffling sound followed by the sound of an engine gunning to third.

“ _Stay down! I’ll get us out of here!_ ” She wasn’t alone and that made his heart beat even faster. He knew Darcy hadn’t had any kids since she’d failed the interview to get into the Kingsman so he was a little nervous about who she’d have in the car with her. Last he heard she’d gotten her masters in Political Science. None of this was connecting for him just yet. For a moment there was nothing but the sound of gunfire and the screeching of tires. The car, he could hear, protested loudly as she dropped into a reverse, something he’d taught her, and spun, wheels wailing in protest. He almost thought the recording was over after what seemed to be two minutes of nothing but the car weaving through traffic and dodging bullets. Good girl. It was like that right up until he heard the unmistakable sound of glass crunching and steel groaning. Car accident. She’d crashed. _**Shit**_.

After a moment of pure silence he heard a voice. He wanted to relax but the voice wasn’t Darcy’s. It was another womans though. “ _Darcy?_ ” the voice was firm but sounded scared, if just a little. “ _Darce, you have to wake up. They’re coming. Darcy, you can’t be dead. Darcy! Agent Smith is dying and you need to wake up so we can get out of-_ ” the plea was cut off by a yelp, followed by a thud. How the phone was still transmitting was a mystery to him. There was no way it would have survived that crash unless it was tampered with. He wondered, idly, what Darcy had gotten herself into.

“ _You’re not supposed to hurt Doc Foster!_ ” that voice is clearly male, darker, rougher.

“ _I ain’t hurt the little bint. Jus knocked ‘er out a bit._ ”

“ _Get her to the car ‘fore S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up. You don’t wan’t to deal with Thor. Trust me, I seen ‘is arms._ ” Well, that certainly changed things a bit, now didn’t it. What was Darcy paling around with Doctor Jane Foster for? And Thor, for that matter.

“ _What ‘bout this one?_ ” there was a sound of a groan, Darcy’s voice, followed by another crack and thud. Gareth narrowed his eyes, waiting for the partner to answer. “ _Yelena wants ‘er alive. Different facility. She goes with us, Foster goes with Rumlow’s people. Or, what’s left of the poor bastards._ ” the shuffling sound was unsettling, the men shifting Darcy out of the car for sure.

“ _Got some tits on this one._ ”

“ _You’re a goddam professional, Ed, fookin act like it._ ”

“ _Oi!, was just sayin. S’a shame. You know Yelena likes to play with her food before she eats it, yeah?_ ”

“ _What do we do with the agent with em?_ ”

“ _‘E’s not needed._ ” the sound of a gun firing, not bothered with a silencer. “ _Problem solved, yeah._ ”

“ _Yeah._ ” Arthur signalled Miss Lang to stop the recording and the sound cut out, though Gareth was sure the thing was still going since he could see Miss Lang working off to the side, eyes narrowed.

“Do we know what’s going on in S.H.I.E.L.D.?” Gareth asked, breaking the dark silence that had settled over the room. He had to force himself to unclench his hands when his nails nearly broke the skin of his gun calloused palm.

“Percival is in DC doing a recon mission. S.H.I.E.L.D. is in shambles. H.Y.D.R.A. had been growing inside them for years. They dumped all their information on the web.” Miss Lang decided to apprise him of the situation. He’d known Percival was in DC but S.H.I.E.L.D.s fall was news to him.

“Why would Miss Lewis be entangled in S.H.I.E.L.D.s affairs, Gareth?” Arthur asked, clasping his hands together and resting them on the table between them. His image blurred slightly at the sudden movement.

“Haven’t the foggiest, but she used my code and I owe her a favor. When do I head out?”

“You don’t.” Arthur’s response threw him a bit for a loop. He shifted into military rest almost automatically.

“Come again?” he asked, giving Arthur an incredulous look.

“We don’t meddle in interagency politics. Her people will get her. We have other fires to put out, like the ones being started by H.Y.D.R.A. right now. As far as the Kingsman are concerned, S.H.I.E.L.D. is a terrorist organization.” Gareth took a step forward, resting his hands on the table.

“I made a promise. We made a promise, as Kingsman. We owe her.”

“I owe her nothing. She was in consort with a terrorist organization. And she failed her exam here. That’s the end of this. Back to your position.” Gareth straightened, nodding and heading out as he dropped his glasses back down on the table. This wouldn’t be the first time a Kingsman agent went against Arthur’s orders and it certainly wouldn’t be the last, Gareth thought as he headed to meet with Merlin, shooting him a quick coded message.

* * *

 

Performing a secret mission inside a secret agency was much harder than one would expect. He had to track Darcy down with help from Merlin who’d honestly only agreed to do this once Galahad had gotten involved and agreed that going against books this once would be all right. They got lucky when Thor trashed the facility they were keeping Doctor Foster in, allowing Merlin to hack the information and discern where they’d taken Darcy. It appeared what was left of S.H.I.E.L.D. was scrambling to get all their assets together and Darcy just wasn’t one of them or they hadn’t noticed her absence yet. Then he had to acquire transportation since they’d taken her to France of all places.

Once out there he knew he was on his own, beside Merlin in his ear.

Getting in the facility wasn’t much of a problem. It was sparsely guarded and those that did spot him were dealt with quickly, a certain amount of finesse going into their undoing. He moved to a computer terminal, Merlin taking remote control of it to help figure out where she was being held, and pulled up security footage of Darcy strapped to the back of a chair. It made his blood run cold, seeing her in that state.

“ _Don’t know what you’re talking about. Sorry._ ” he could hear Darcy’s sassy response, sharp as ever even with a boot on her face, to a question Gareth hadn’t heard. He could hear Merlin in his ear, swearing under his breath.

“You’re getting this then?”

“Yeah, I’m getting it. Give me a minute.”

Gareth heard Darcy’s scream ring through the camera and instantly brought his attention back to the screen as the woman’s foot slammed into his old friends face. He heard a crack and realized it was him, nearly breaking the mouse in his hand. Still, Darcy didn’t break.

“ _I’ll try again. Where would they take her?_ Where is Jane Foster?” Gareth couldn’t help the swell of rage he felt as the woman toed at Darcy’s face like she was trash to be stepped on.

“ _Well, she’s probably in Asgard. I mean, Thor is kind of protective so-_ ” perhaps it was because he knew her, or had known her in another lifetime, that he knew she was lying. There was no real indication that she was lying, he just knew. Apparently the woman did too because she kicked Darcy in the head again.

“ _Do not lie to me._ ” he watched as the vicious blonde kicked Darce with each word, drawing little gags and whimpers out of the girl. She didn’t break.

“ _You know-_ ” Darcy was so slurred he was really concerned about permanent damage to her skull. “ _If you keep going for th’ head then you’re never gonna get any info. Makes me all wobbly. Don’t you know how to interrogate someone?_ ” she wasn’t wrong, and it amused Gareth at least a little, even though he was sure she was referencing a Batman movie. Someone opened the door to the control panel, causing Gareth to turn and shoot him without blinking before turning back to the feed.

“Come on, Merlin. Where is she?”

“Almost there.”

“ _I’ll be back, then you’re going to answer some questions._ ”

“I think hurrying would be great about now, Merlin.” Gareth turned, heading out of the control room to let Merlin finish up while he took out a few more guards. Whomever came his way. He wanted to get to Darcy before that woman made it back to her. It was now or never.

“Basement, third door to the left. The woman is heading back there now. She found some of the bodies you left behind. Might want to hurry.”

Gareth didn’t need to be told twice, making his way down to the basement. He was sure this facility was understaffed considering no alarm had been triggered as of yet and he hadn’t exactly been discreet with where he’d been dropping the bodies. Really, he knew better than that by now but this was Darcy. He was a little… compromised. He opened the door to her cell just as Darcy headbutted the woman viciously. She’d always been pretty scrappy. After that Darcy was pretty fast. She snapped back quickly, despite what he could tell was a severely dislocated shoulder, and managed to free herself. He barely heard the woman threaten Darcy, saw the flash of a knife, before he shot.

The woman was down in an instant, Darcy’s eyes flashing up to his face before she inched closer, knife still in her side. She either didn’t feel it or was in severe shock, either way he was concerned, and he spoke. “Terribly sorry I’m late, Miss. Lewis-”  he tried to be polite but he could see her flinch at the name and corrected it. “Darcy. But we need to go.” he offered his hand, unsure if she’d take it but positive she wouldn’t be able to get out of there without some sort of support.

“I don’t know what kind of work you did with my brother, Gareth, but I think we need to have a long conversation when I’m not bleeding out.” he tried not to chuckle as she placed her smaller hand in his. He lead her closer, wrapping his arm around her waist to support her, and heard the soft whimper she let out. He wasn’t ready to remove the knife from her side, not without medical advice, and she seemed to understand that, since she angled it away from him. He could feel at least two broken fingers and he didn’t like how she was favoring the side with the knife in it. That couldn’t be good.

“Don’t worry, Darcy, we’re getting you out of here. Come on then-” they managed to struggle up the steps to the ground floor before Darcy slumped at his side. He was actually surprised she’d made it that far. He grabbed the umbrella from his back, opening it up and positioning it before he swung her up in his arms, that way they both had some cover and a way to defend himself at the same time. “Merlin-”

“You’re clear to the exit for now, just get out of there!”

It was easy getting out, as easy as it was getting in, but his ride was late. Gareth crouched down, holding Darcy firmly to his chest while half resting her on his knees. Ten minutes was too long to wait when the situation was this volatile. He heard the sound of a car pulling up, sending gravel spraying towards the bush he’d crouched behind and his nerves were instantly on edge. This was either rescue or the facility had back up. He gently set Darcy down, standing to get a better look at the vehicle. The tension drained out of him as he waved Galahad over.

“In the neighborhood?” he asked the slightly older agent.

“Heard you needed a ride.” Galahad responded and jogged over to them, heels kicking dirt up as he moved. He caught sight of Darcy and wrinkled his nose up. “Lets get her home.”

* * *

 

Gareth paced back and forth in front of Darcy’s bed in the infirmary, pausing every now and again to eye the casts she was currently sporting. It had been days and she hadn’t so much as moved. The little whimpering she’d been making in the facility had started returning about thirty minutes ago but he didn’t want to wake her too suddenly. She needed to wake on her own time. Darcy was pretty messed up and she wouldn’t even know their relationship, the friendship they’d formed years ago. He was worried.

He’d got his arse handed to him by Arthur but she’d been kept in facility. It was a risk sending her to any other hospital since she was clearly wanted by H.Y.D.R.A.. They couldn’t put those people in danger and she knew too much about the Kingsman. He continued to pace again when it appeared she wouldn’t be waking that second. Of course the moment he took his eyes off of her Darcy’s blue eyes opened, confusion flooding her. “Gareth?” she tried, voice shaking. It was too difficult to get anything else out aside from that weak attempt. He stopped pacing and turned to her, small smile playing at his lips.

“Darcy.” he he spoke softly, pausing for a brief moment. “We need to _talk_.”

 


End file.
